UPDATED: Manchester man suffers head injury trying to break up fight

MANCHESTER— Bail was set at $50,000 cash/surety for a Bow man accused of knocking down a stranger who sought to intervene in an argument Saturday night on Elm Street.

Kyle Mehlhorn, 20, of 136 Page Road, is accused of pushing Jeffrey Caron, 37, so hard that Caron’s feet left the ground and he fell backwards, his head slamming onto pavement.

Mehlhorn was arraigned Monday in Circuit Court-Manchester District Division on a second degree assault charge. No plea can be entered to a felony in Circuit Court, so a probable cause hearing was set for March 24.

At Mehlhorn’s appearance in Circuit Court, a police prosecutor said Caron sustained a brain bleed and fractured vertebrae when he was knocked to the ground.

Court documents show a witness told police that he was walking north on Elm Street around midnight when he saw two men arguing on the northeast corner of Elm and Amherst streets. The witness, Justin Frost, 26, said he saw Caron say something to the men, after which the man later identified as Mehlhorn pushed Caron with both hands.

Frost said Mehlhorn pushed so hard that both of Caron’s feet left the pavement and Caron sailed into the air before landing on his back and head. Frost told police he heard the “crack” of Caron’s head hitting the pavement.

Officer Daniel Wood wrote that when he responded to Frost’s 911 call, he found Caron lying on his back, arms outstretched, with blood pooling beneath his head. Caron was transported to a local hospital.

Frost told Wood that the man who pushed Caron fled south on Elm Street and west on Stark Street. Using the description provided by Frost, police located Mehlhorn in the area of Pleasant and Bedford streets.

On his bail form, Mehlhorn wrote that he has been convicted of criminal trespass and attempted theft and is currently out on bail on an unarmed robbery charge.

Police are asking any witnesses to the assault to contact Detective Patrick Houghton of the Manchester Police Detective Division at 792-5511.